Trapped
by Kyashu
Summary: Robin and Slade find themselves trapped in a caved-in mine during a snow storm.


So my friend Mika and I decided to both write a story with some of the same plotpoints for comparisons sake. And I chose one of the most cliche plots in the history of fanfiction: being trapped alone with someone in a very cold place. Again this isn't beta read, so if you find any mistake please let me know. Enjoy!

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><p>"I blame you for this."<p>

"Really Robin, if anyone's to blame for our situation it would be you." Somehow Slade was able to convey his glare from behind his mask, something Robin wasn't sure how he did it.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have had exploding robots guarding an abandoned mineshaft!" Robin knew Slade was right, but he'd never say it out loud.

The two of them were sitting in a collapsed mineshaft in Northern Canada. Robin, who was still as obsessed with catching Slade as ever, had come searching for him after a hint from Titans North placed a being who looked like on of Slade's robots had been seen smuggling stolen technology up a snowy mountain road. So Robin went to check it out. After getting a map and a snowmobile from the Titans North headquarters, Robin set forth tracking Slade down.

But after finding Slade's hideout, it inevitably turned into a fight. And a fight in an abandoned mineshaft plus Slade's new Sladebots (which turned out to be prone to chain reaction explosions) and Robin's disc grenades turned out to be a very bad idea.

So now they were trapped underground with all the passageways blocked off. Both of them had decided to call a temporary truce because neither of them liked the idea of being crushed by falling rocks.

Slade rolled his eye behind his mask. "Well thank you for using explosives in a possibly unstable area, Robin. If I had known you were this stupid I'd have never tried to make you my apprentice."

Robin gave a moody huff of annoyance and turned himself away from Slade. He wished he could avoid the man entirely, but the space they were in was ridiculously narrow. If he were to guess the dimensions of the collapsed cavern, he'd say it was about four feet wide and five feet long. Robin couldn't even fully lay down straight. Looking the other way let him see something he'd missed before, there was snow falling in.

Robin leapt up, banging his head against the ceiling. Rubbing his head where he hit it, Robin pointed at the snow. "There's an opening! Maybe we can find a way out through there."

Slade pulled himself to his feet too. He had to stoop even further than Robin did in a way that looked uncomfortable. They investigated and found a small gap to the surface between some boulders. "Can you fit through that?" asked Slade.

Robin stared at it and shook his head. "The gap's too small. I might have been able to squeeze through a few years ago, but not now. Do you think we can make it bigger?"

Slade let out a low sigh. "I don't want to risk bringing the rest of the ceiling down."

"So we're stuck here until we either freeze to death or starve to death or until someone rescues us. Perfect."

Slade sat back down. "This almost makes me miss Terra. Or at least her powers."

"Well she's not here (thanks to you) and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to help you anyway," said Robin coldy. He sat down as well and let his eyes adjust to the dim light. Titans North would probably start looking for him eventually, but they didn't know exactly where Slade's hideout was and it had started snowing while he was tracking Slade, so his trail might be gone in a few hours. He could only hope that they could find the snowmobile and figure it out from there.

He shivered. Robin could just barely see his breath weak light. The stone walls did nothing to keep things warm and the temperature was rapidly dropping as the evening approached. His jacket was next to useless too. During the fight with the Sladebots his jacket had been ripped to shreds by their claws. Cold and annoyed, Robin muttered under his breath. "Why can't villains ever make their lairs in tropical paradises?"

"Because there have been too many parodies. No one takes tropical island hideouts seriously anymore."

Robin jumped, not expecting Slade's response. Had Slade just made a joke? Weird.

"Are you cold?"

Robin scoffed. "No way! "I'm totally used to camping out in caves in temperatures below zero."

Slade stretched his legs out as far as he could get in the small space. "If you're sure."

Robin nodded (though it was barely visible in the dim light) and they sat in quiet for a while. Robin quickly grew bored sitting in silence. It's not like he could really talk to Slade about anything important and he imagined a game of 'I Spy' would go nowhere (and Slade might try to kill him because of it).

The cave grew even darker as the sun set and it grew colder too. Robin started shivering more violently and his teeth chattered embarrassingly loud. He gave an undignified yelp as he felt a hand grasping his wrist and pulling him closer to a warm body.

"What are you doing?" Robin sputtered, struggling half-heartedly to get away. He didn't exactly want to get this close to Slade, but he couldn't help but want the warmth he feels radiating off the man.

Slade just held on tighter. "I'm sharing body heat. What do you think I'm doing?"

Uncomfortable, Robin tried to distance himself by joking, "Wow Slade, I never knew you cared."

Slade sounded amused as he replied. "Sharing body heat goes both ways Robin and I don't want to freeze either. Besides, I've never wanted you dead. You're far more entertaining alive."

Robin grumbled under his breath but didn't pull away again. While it wasn't very comfortable with the stone floor and their armor between them, it still felt much warmer than before. "You better not tell anyone about this."

Slade laughed out loud and pulled Robin even closer so they were practically cuddling. "_Right_," he drawled out. "Because I want to tell everyone that I huddled close to a teenage boy in an isolated, dark place."

This situation described like that was so ridiculous to Robin that he couldn't help but burst out laughing as well. He didn't even care that he was laughing _with_ Slade (though this was another thing he'd be lying about if anyone ever asked what happened).

It was now completely dark. The sun had either set or was too low in the sky to shine any rays through the gaps in the rocks. After briefly discussing whether or not it would be beneficial to turn on any flashlights either of them might have, they decided to save the power in them for if they really needed it.

It was strange. Sitting in the dark with Slade wasn't as horrible as Robin might have imagined. For one thing, he wasn't trying to cause him any pain or forcing him into being his apprentice. Robin wasn't exactly delighted by the fact that he was trapped with his worst enemy, but all things considered, it could be much worse.

"So why are you up here anyway?" he asked the older man.

Slade shifted a bit (lounging on a cold, stone floor wasn't exactly pleasant even for him). "I would have thought that you'd already know that. Did the Bat not teach you to investigate things?"

Robin stiffened, both from the mention of Batman and for the implication that his investigation skills were lacking. "It was short notice. I didn't have time to research what you'd been doing because I didn't even know if you'd be here by the time I tracked down this lead!"

Slade started shaking in what was most likely silent laughter. "Your top priority is me after all this time? I'm flattered."

"What! No, I just—" Robin sighed. "Fine. You're too dangerous to just forget about. And…" He mumbled the rest in a low voice.

"I didn't catch that last part. Can you repeat it?" Slade could hear him just fine, but it was much more satisfying to make Robin say what he just said in a tone he'd know Slade could hear.

Robin gritted his teeth. He thought about not answering just to spite the mercenary, but decided he might as well say it. It's not like Slade didn't know already… probably. "I said, this _thing_ we have, it's personal somehow. Catching you is my obsession, something you made sure of, by the way. And sometimes that makes me do stupid things like pretend to be a villain or exploring an area I have no experience with without doing any basic research."

Robin was grateful for the darkness because he was certain his face and ears were an unflattering shade of red. He had almost expected Slade to laugh at him again, but the man remained quiet for a bit after he finished talking. Robin was going to attempt to stay silent for the rest of their time trapped in fear of embarrassing himself further, but Slade's voice broke through the silence.

"It's not that different for me. You caught my attention and showed real potential. I wanted to see just how good you could get. But you know how that went. I hadn't even had a real interest in Jump until I found out you were living there."

Robin was kind of stunned that he actually believed Slade. Something just told him that the man was being honest and it wasn't like Slade had anything to gain by telling him this. He felt a bit better knowing that he wasn't alone in feeling like this. …At least until Slade's next sentence.

"I would have been better off trying when you were younger."

"You know that's pretty creepy, right Slade?"

"Creepier than a man dressing like a bat and adopting children to fight crime with?"

Robin choked down a laugh at that, not really able to counter that. When he figured he could stop himself from laughing more he replied, "Oh yeah. _Way_ creepier."

The atmosphere in their cold, little cave was much more congenial than Robin ever thought he could have with a criminal, let alone Slade. But like all temporary truces between heroes and villains, it ended quickly and semi-violently.

Titans North came to rescue Robin after night had fallen and he hadn't contacted them. Robin and Slade separated, both not wanting to be seen in a position that could be mistaken for cuddling, as they heard voices calling for Robin.

They finally broke out the flashlights and Robin squeezed his arm out through one of the gaps to shine the light through in hopes of catching his fellow Titans' attention. Less than five minutes later they were both free from the mineshaft and shivering in the snow because apparently a blizzard had started sometime during when they had been trapped.

"Robin, are you alright?" came the expected question from one of their newer members, Frost. The other Titans looked similarly concerned in the small amount of light provided by the flashlights and from the light generated by Solstice.

"Y-yeah. I-I-I'm fine." Robin's teeth were chattering so much that he could barely get out a sentence. "S-S-S-Slade?"

But the mercenary had managed to use the darkness and the storm to his advantage and escape. No doubt he had transportation stashed somewhere, but in this weather and in the darkness they probably didn't stand a chance to find him. Despite the odds, Frost and Solstice, went searching for him, as their powers would be the best for searching in both the dark and the cold.

Robin wasn't surprised. He hadn't really expected Slade to stick around and risk being arrested, even if the chances of that were probably low. Still though, Robin didn't exactly regret this encounter. It made him feel like Slade was an actual human opponent and not some evil, relentless monster (and seeing as the man had returned from the dead, that was something he'd wondered about). And as much as he hated to admit it, he had missed interacting with Slade.

Three weeks after the encounter, Robin received a report from one of their European branches saying that a man in a black and orange mask fitting Slade's description had been seen stealing experimental technology being used for potentially controlling the weather. Though from the reports, the security cameras the lab used should have been easily avoided by someone with Slade's abilities.

Robin smirked. Maybe he wasn't the only who missed this. As he prepared to fly to the city where the lab was located, he remarked out loud, "Well I never did find out what Slade's plan in Canada was."


End file.
